UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
BOARD OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE
Minutes of the meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Science held on Wednesday 4 February
2004.
Present:
Professor Easton (in the Chair), Professor Ball, Professor Cooper, Professor
Dupree, Dr K Flint, Mr D Kelley (UG student representative), Mr J Khawaja (PG
student representative), Dr G R Martin, Dr K Neailey, Professor Paterson, Dr T
Price, Dr J Robinson, Professor Singer, Professor J Q Smith, Dr C Sparrow,
Professor Wills,
Apologies:
Professor Battacharyya, Dr RA Beare, Professor Carpenter, Professor Copas,
Professor Derrick, Professor Dowson, Professor Freedman, Professor Gardner,
Professor Green, Professor Haddleton, Dr S Joseph, Mr J Khawaja (PG student
representative), Professor Lamberts, Professor Rand, Professor Roberts,
Professor Taylor, Professor Thomas, Dr R Tribe, Professor Wilson
In Attendance:
Mr J Darwin (for item 37/03-04 only), Professor Hutchins (for item 34/03-04 only),
Ms H Ireland
MINUTES
27/03-04
Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Science held on 5
November 2003 be approved.
29/03-04
Matters Arising on the Minutes
(a)
Progress of Faculty Recommendations
REPORTED:
That the Academic Quality and Standards Committee at its meeting on 19
November 2003 considered and recorded its approval of the Faculty
Recommendations under the following headings:
(i)
Annual Review Reports
The summary reports of the Annual Review of Undergraduate Courses
2002/03 for the following faculties, it being noted that the Board of
Undergraduate Studies, at its meeting on 12 November, recommended that
the summary reports be circulated to departments in advance of the
relevant meetings of the Faculty Boards, it being noted that this may mean
the deadline for submission of Annual Review reports by departments
would have to be brought forward:
(A)
(B)
Faculty of Arts, paper BUGS 6/03-04.
Faculty of Science, paper BUGS 7/03-04.
And resolved:
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(C)
(D)
(E)
(ii)
That the Annual Course Review reports listed above be approved.
That Annual Course Review reports should not identify individual
students.
That Annual Course Review reports on courses falling within the remit
of the Board of Lifelong Learning not also be considered by the
relevant Faculty Board. (minute AQSC 30/03-04 refers)
Periodic Review: Engineering
It being noted that at its meeting held on 13 November, the Board of
Graduate Studies approved the report, noting that WMG would continue to
monitor turnaround times for the marking assessed work and that guidance
on feedback to students was provided to WMG staff and that AQSC
resolved that the Periodic Review report on postgraduate provision in the
School of Engineering, paper BFS 19/03-04 and the response from the
School, paper BFS 20/03-04 be approved; it being noted that the School
would need to keep under review the timeliness of feedback to students on
assessed work. (minute AQSC 42c/03-04 refers)
(iii)
Periodic Review: Mathematics
It being noted that at its meeting held on 13 November, the Board of
Graduate Studies considered the report and resolved that it be approved as
set out in papers BFS 4/03-04, noting that the Department of Mathematics’
Self-Evaluation Document could be used as an example of good practice.
(minute AQSC 42e/03-04 refers)
(b)
Integrated Undergraduate Masters Degrees (minute 6/03-04 refers)
REPORTED:
That at its meeting on 19 November 2003, the Academic Quality and Standards
Committee considered the issue of Integrated Undergraduate Masters Degrees
and departments’ responses to the consultation by the Senior Assistant Registrar
(Teaching Quality), who subsequently sent a memo to Science Chairs of
Departments explaining the resolution (paper BFS21/03-04).
(c)
Representation on the Board and its Committees
REPORTED:
That Mr Douglas Kelley has been elected as the undergraduate student
representative to the Board to replace Mr S Watling .
30/03-04
Chair’s Business
RECEIVED:
Faculty Advisory Board
An oral report from the Chair on the meeting of the Chairs of the Faculty Advisory
Boards and the Faculty Boards to be held at Warwick on 3 February 2004, noting that
the second formal meeting of the group would be held in the next two to three months
and that further efforts would be made to invite external members of the Board to visit
departments at Warwick and to develop a web portal for Faculty Advisory Board
members.
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31/03-04
Report from the Sub-Faculty
RECEIVED:
32/03-04
(a)
The minutes of the meetings of the Sub-Faculty held on 28 January 2004.
(b)
An oral report from the Chair of the Sub-Faculty.
Report from the Graduate Studies Committee
RECEIVED:
33/03-04
(a)
The minutes of the meeting of the Graduate Studies Committee held on 28
January 2004.
(b)
An oral report from the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee.
Report from the Science Faculty IT Committee
RECEIVED:
The minutes of the meeting of the Faculty IT Committee held on 6 January 2004,
noting the following:
34/03-04
(a)
That the newly-appointed Science Faculty e-learning advisor will be invited to
attend future meetings of the Committee.
(b)
That Board members encouraged ITS to introduce the use of better anti-spam
software.
Centre for Nanotechnology and Microengineering
CONSIDERED:
A proposal from the current Director to close the Centre for Nanotechnology and
Microengineering (paper BFS22/03-04).
RECOMMENDED:
That the proposal from the Director to close the Centre for Nanotechnology and
Microengineering as set out in paper BFS22/03-04 be approved, noting that this
recommendation would be made via a report that did not include the individual voting
results as set out in this paper.
35/03-04
Periodic Reviews
(a)
Upcoming Reviews
REPORTED:
That the following Periodic Review Panels are due to take place as set out below:
(i)
Physics (separate PG and UG reviews) to be held on 11 March 2004 with
the following review Panel as approved by the Chair:
(A)
(B)
Dr K Flint (Chair), Biological Sciences
Professor Bugg, Chemistry
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(C)
(D)
(ii)
Psychology (joint PG and UG reviews) to be held on 26 April 2004 with the
following review Panel as approved by the Chair:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(iii)
Dr C Sparrow (Chair), Mathematics
Professor Roberts, Biological Sciences
Dr A Hobbs, Philosophy
Professor Martin Conway, University of Durham
Statistics (joint PG and UG review) to be held on 14 May 2004 with the
following review Panel as approved by the Chair:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(b)
Professor Harrison, Economics
Professor Richard Jones, University of Sheffield
Professor Wilson (Chair), Computer Science
Dr D Hodgson, Biological Sciences
Professor Legge, WBS
Professor Andrew Wood, University of Nottingham
Engineering
CONSIDERED:
(i)
The Periodic Review of Undergraduate Courses in the School of
Engineering (paper BFS23/03-04)
(ii)
The Department’s response to the review report (paper BFS24/03-04).
RECOMMENDED:
(iii)
36/03-04
That the Periodic Review of Undergraduate Courses in the School of
Engineering and the Department’s response to the review report as set out
in papers BFS23-24/03-04 be approved, noting the Board felt the
Department’s response adequately addressed the recommendations of the
report.
Annual Review Reports
CONSIDERED:
The following Annual Review Reports for 2002/03, noting that the Board is requested to
identify points of best practice and areas of possible improvement and that from this
the Secretariat will produce a composite report indicating the principal issues arising,
areas for improvement and examples of good practice:
Undergraduate
(a) Chemistry (paper BFS25/03-04)
Postgraduate
(b)
(c)
Chemistry (paper BFS26/03-04), including:
(i)
Instrumental and Analytical Methods in Biological and Environmental
Chemistry IAMBEC
Engineering (paper BFS27/03-04) including:
(i)
MSc Advanced Engineering
(ii) MSc Advanced Electronic Engineering
(iii) MSc Advanced Mechanical Engineering
(iv) MSc Advanced Photonics and Communications
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(d)
(e)
(f)
Mathematics
(i)
MSc/Interdisciplinary MSc (MIR@W) (paper BFS28/03-04)
(ii) MSc in Financial Mathematics (paper BFS29/03-04)
Statistics (paper BFS30/03-04) including:
(i)
MSc/Diploma in Statistics
Warwick Manufacturing Group (paper BFS31/03-04) including:
(i)
MSc Electronic Business Management
(ii) MSc Engineering Business Management
(iii) MSc Information Technology for Manufacture
(iv) MSc International Technology Management
(v) MSc Manufacturing Systems Engineering
(vi) MSc Process Business Management
(vii) MSc Quality & Reliability
(viii) MSc Supply Engineering & Logistics
(ix) Post-experience Dip Engineering Business Management
(x) Post-experience Dip Process Business Management
RECOMMENDED:
Undergraduate
(g)
That the undergraduate annual review report from the department of Chemistry
as set out in paper BFS25/03-04 be approved, the Board noting:
(i)
That the newly instituted feedback mechanisms via summary tables and a
year-end presentation of how issues were responded was to be
commended.
(ii)
That the issue of the lack of appropriate teaching and/or examination space
for larger modules which require IT resources was a problem shared across
the departments in the Faculty of Science.
Postgraduate
(h)
37/03-04
That the postgraduate annual review reports for the Faculty of Science as set out
in papers BFS26-31/03-04 be approved, noting the following:
(i)
That departments are reminded to use the latest version of the form for
reporting and that Statistics be requested to submit theirs on the new form
including the completion of the ‘Links with Employers’ section.
(ii)
That Mathematics be requested to give further details regarding the
reasons for the 12 extensions granted and this would be included in the
summary.
(iii)
That the Board requested confirmation that the deadline for submission of
postgraduate annual review reports was after the deadline for external
examiners to submit their reports so that annual reviews can be written in
light of these.
Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs)
RECEIVED:
A paper outlining the Science and Engineering Ambassador scheme designed to
promote science and technology in schools (paper BFS32/03-04), followed by an oral
report from the Warwick Volunteers Project Manager, noting the following:
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38/03-04
(a)
That he would welcome anyone in departments who would be willing to set up an
initial briefing for him to come and talk to interested postgraduate students.
(b)
That there may be a role for this to play regarding the generic skills training issue
which has been raised by the funding councils.
(c)
That the Board felt it was beneficial for opportunities such as this to exist for
students.
Undergraduate Curriculum Review Group
CONSIDERED:
Recommendations to the Board of Science from the Board of Undergraduate Studies
following their consideration of the Undergraduate Curriculum Review Group final
report (paper BFS33/03-04).
RESOLVED:
That the Board wished to make the following points in response to the
recommendations of the Board of Undergraduate as set out in paper BFS33/03-04:
(a)
That the issue of creating ‘optionality’ within the Faculty of Science with students
allowed to take other Science modules could be seen as distinct from students
being allowed to take a large proportion of modules outside the Faculty, noting:
(i)
That there are a number of degrees which were interdisciplinary in nature
within the Faculty of Science, such as the ‘and’ and ‘with’ degrees and in
particular the MORSE degree, which provides flexibility for students to
study two or more subjects together and that departments would consider
new courses of this nature where feasible.
(ii)
That most courses within the Faculty have flexibility in choice in that in later
years candidates have more options to choose from to specialise in the
particular area they wish to.
(iii)
That degrees such as ‘Natural Sciences’ give one type of very prescriptive
optionality, but do not provide as much flexibility to take options outside the
Sciences; and that, while there may be a limited market for this type of
degree structure, the Board did not feel that there was enough evidence at
the current time to support this change, bearing in mind the Faculty’s aim to
continue to provide cohesive degrees with good employability to high
quality candidates.
(iv)
That it was felt that the University would need to pursue a completely
modular route in order to implement a structure whereby candidates could
successfully have a wide choice of modules outside their own faculty,
noting the significant timetable constraints that already exist particularly
when incorporating large blocks of lab time necessary within a number of
Science courses.
(b)
That many departments in Science have courses that allow flexibility to transfer
between them without delaying progression.
(c)
That the Board was sceptical about what could be seen as a ‘pick and mix’
programme which would lack cohesion, particularly with reference to what
employers would feel was beneficial.
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39/03-04
Amendments to University Ordinances and Membership of the Sub-Faculty of Science
CONSIDERED:
(a)
Proposed amendments to University Ordinance 7, Ordinance on the Constitution
of the Boards of the Faculties, to remove the School of Postgraduate Medical
Education which now rests within the Faculty of Medicine, and to include
Horticulture Research International with effect from 1 April 2004 (paper
BFS34/03-04).
(b)
A proposal from the School of Engineering to abolish the Electronics Steering
Committee and therefore amend the membership of the Sub-Faculty of Science
to remove one full-time member of the teaching staff elected by the Steering
Committee for Electronics degrees (paper SFS27/03-04), noting that at its
meeting held on 28 January 2004 the Sub-Faculty considered this proposal and
recommended that it be approved.
RECOMMENDED:
40/03-04
(c)
That the proposed amendments to University Ordinance 7 to remove the School
of Postgraduate Medical Education and to include Horticulture Research
International with effect from 1 April 2004 as set out in paper BFS34/03-04 be
approved, subject to (3)(e) being amended to read ‘two’ rather than ‘three other
permanent full-time members of academic staff . . . ‘.
(d)
That the proposal from the School of Engineering to abolish the Electronics
Steering Committee and therefore amend the membership of the Sub-Faculty of
Science accordingly as set out in paper SFS27/03-04 be approved.
Deadline for Papers
REPORTED:
That the deadline for the receipt of papers was no later than 12noon on the
Wednesday of the week preceding each meeting of the Board of the Faculty, and that
members are encouraged to submit items as earlier as possible to allow for timely
circulation.
41/03-04
Issues to be brought to Senate
RESOLVED:
That there were no specific issues which the Board wished to report to the Senate for
discussion.
42-45/03-04Reserved Items
See the separate agenda for academic members of the Board of the Faculty only for
these items.
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